$4.9M Loan for Red Dog Mine Solar Array
This aerial view, taken in 2000, shows the main Red Dog Mine mill complex. The mining pit is visible on the left and part of the tailings pond on the right.
Photo Credit: David Coil, and Bretwood Higman | Northern Alaska Environmental Center
Whether Red Dog Mine extends its working life beyond 2031 or switches to shutdown mode, the site will need electricity to operate. That power could come from a new solar array to offset costly diesel-fired generation.
The Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) approved a $4.9 million loan to support development and construction of an 8.8-MW solar project and battery energy storage system. The rated output is slightly greater than the largest solar farm currently in Alaska, the 8.5-MW facility in Houston.
Midnight Sun Power
half-megawatt array in 2021, offsetting eight wind turbines. The solar panels in Kotzebue are bifacial, so they generate electricity from light reflecting off snowy ground; in summer, they generate all night, while the sun is up.
Tugliq Red Dog1, a subsidiary of a Canadian renewable energy company, is receiving the loan from AEA’s Power Project Fund, which provides loans to eligible borrowers for the development, construction, and improvement of power facilities in Alaska.
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“Red Dog Mine is a major economic engine providing substantial long-term benefits to the Northwest Arctic region, and this project provides a low-cost source of energy to support its continued operations,” says AEA CEO and executive director Curtis W. Thayer. “Through the Power Project Fund, AEA can provide financing for projects that expand Alaska’s energy infrastructure while supporting sustained economic activity in communities and regions across the state.”
The solar project has a total price tag of approximately $35 million. Tugliq Red Dog1 will develop, own, and operate the facility as an independent power producer. The company will sell electricity to Teck Alaska, operator of Red Dog Mine, under a power purchase agreement.
The project is meant to reduce diesel generation requirements while also providing flexibility during the summer, when power-intensive mill operations sometimes require the mine to curtail other electrical loads. The project is anticipated to provide about 5 percent of Red Dog Mine’s projected power needs under its current operating scenario.
Solar power could supply approximately 90 percent of annual power needs under a mine-closure scenario. Red Dog Mine’s operating life is scheduled to expire by 2031 with the depletion of the Aqqaluk deposit.
Teck Alaska is seeking new sources of zinc at the Aktigiruq and Anarraaq deposits on state lands a few miles northwest of the current mill. The Life Extension Project was added to the FAST-41 (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) dashboard in September, to improve transparency and predictability of federal environmental review and authorization by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The project is intended to add fourteen years to Red Dog Mine’s operating life.
Whether in 2031 or later, the mine will shift to reclamation mode, and the site will still need electricity for wastewater treatment and monitoring.
The solar power project is scheduled for completion in late 2028.
